The only difference between Communism and Fascism

By Haines Brown, contribution to a dialog in the
alt.politics.communism newsgroup, 18 July 2002 [slightly
edited for clarity]

On Wed, 17 Jul 2002 22:50:55 -0400, antiproperty wrote:

> Kurt Weber: The only difference between Communism and
> Fascism is that the Fascists are honest about what they're
> doing, and thus morally superior to Communists.
>
> As opposed to you, an anti-communist who hangs out in a
> communist discussion forum?

Please, guys, this is a serious topic, although I suspect rather
quaint and misplaced. An association of communism and fascism is a
relic of Cold War anti-communism and has less relevance today because
(unfortunately) there no longer seems to be a generalized abhorance of
fascism and also because the model of communism was then Stalin's
Soviet Union. The question necessarily forces us to employ useful and
agreed upon definitions of both fascism and communism, but that ios
not here the case. So first let me reflect a little upon the meaning
of the word fascism.

The term fascism in origin refered to the concentration of
political offices within the hands of the Roman Emperor, centered on
his office of being head of the military. Since these offices were
represented as swagger sticks, the symbol of fascism is a
bundle of sticks with an axe at the center, and the Latin word
"fasces" was actually only a bundle of sticks.

However, it would be a gross misunderstanding to call the Roman
Emperors fascist in any modern sense, for the magnitude of
their political power by modern standards was slight, and imperial
politics did not much impinge on people's lives. Today must go
beyond a purely political definition such as a non-separation of
powers, for which we have a perfectly good word, authoritarian.
Even the word dictatorship does not quite capture the horrors
implied by our modern notion of fascism.

One of the problems of definition is that we use the term fascism to
refer to quite different movements and behaviors. This is why an
empiricist definition, such as that of Alan Bullock, forces us to be a
little arbitrary when it comes to deciding whether the word fits in
particular cases. Here is his list of empirical traits, although I've
taken some liberty with them in order to evaluate the extent to which
his typical properties fit communism:

1. Ultra-Nationalism. This suggests the context of modern fascism is
the bourgeois state. While communist movements can also be nationalist
at certain points and national movements socialist, they don't
seem intrinsically so. In particular, communists are principled
internationalists, while fascists are quite the opposite, aiming at
exclusion, not inclusion. So, as we look into the matter more deeply,
communists and fascists seem the opposite in this respect.

2. Authoritarian. While communist movements can be authoritarian as
well as bourgeois regimes, there seems to me to be a basic
difference. The authoritarianism associated with fascism seems to be a
consequence of systemic crisis, and it does not offer any escape from
that authoritarian order. The authoritarianism that may be associated
with a communist movement seeks to build the revolutionary unity and
discipline needed to arrive at a non-authoritarian future. While this
has proven tricky in practice and the short term effect on people
might be the same, fascist authoritarianism and communist
authoritarianism seem quite different when viewed as long term
processes.

3. Anti-democratic. Fascism attacked any organization of private
interest, such as unions, as threats to the political order under
which the person's whole being was to be subsumed (culture raised
to the political level). Communist movements have at times been
un-democratic as well, but, again, when viewed as a long term process,
they are quite different. Fascism sacrifices democracy to perpetuate
the political order needed by capitalism; communism creates a
political order that can usher in democracy and dissolution the
state as an instrument of oppression.

4. Racism and xenophobia. The social anxiety arising from the
bourgeois state in crisis lent itself to a definition of the
other as a threat to the good political order. You could further
that political order by attacking aliens, which helped purify
one's own society. Communism can also be sectarian, but in
ways that seem in principle to be less destructive.

Communists represent the bourgeoisie as an alien class, but this does
not mean the aim is to kill them as people, but only their class,
their relation of production. That is, communists aim to expropriate
capitalists and convert members of the bourgoisie into
wage-earners. While you can't, as Mao once put it, make an omlette
without cracking a few eggs, a revolution is very likely to be
violent. However, in its course you don't attack on people for what
they intrinsically are (their culture or race), but on their
social role, which can change withough destroying the person.

Communist movements can also be sectarian in terms of ideology, but
I'd pursue a similar argument that while fascism attacks what
people intrinsically are, communism attacks only their behavior. The
difference is fundamental, for socialism seeks to develop everyone,
while fascism excludes or eliminates all but a group that therefore
ends being statically pure.

5. Class. Fascism seems historically linked to a crisis of the
bourgeoise middle class. Although support might come from some
workers as well, the movement seems primarily to arise from a crisis
of the middle class. Communism, on the other hand, can also
attract members from other classes, such as peasants and middle-class
intellectuals, but it is characteristic of the working class, being
the only ideology specific to that class. So basically, the movements
engage contradictory classes, and so they are socially opposite.

In short, while a narrow focus can find areas in which fascism and
communism might share some similarities, a broader and deeper view
suggests that they are quite the opposite. It is significant that in
historical terms the two movements have been bitter enemies, and this
confirms our impression that in terms of principle they are really
opposite. differ.

Although the issue of fascism vs. communism might seem at this point
in time to be a dead issue, there is some indication that since 1989
it may be reappearing. As a result, there must be a fresh approach if
there is to be a useful outcome.

If fascism is defined in empiricist terms, there will always be
uncertainty as to whether it remains a concept relevant to
contemporary circumstances. To what extent is Bush's Homeland
Security proto-fascist? Questions like this can only lead to
pointless spitting matches if we try to define fascism simply as a
bundle of behaviors, such as the example I have drawn from Alan
Bulloch.

A way out of this is to ask whether fascism can be defined in systemic
terms. For example, can we define it as a set of strategies designed
to cope with capitalist crisis? If so, we can then assess whether the
US is sliding toward a fascism, leaving individuals with no viable
options to express their private interests. A strike becomes disloyal,
un-American. Failing that, the term might perhaps be limited to the
WWII era, as a convenient collection of behaviors that arose in that
specific historical circumstance.

Socialists and capitalists are not likely to agree over whether to
employ an empiricist definition and one that is systemic, for Marxists
prefer systemic explanations, while capitalist ideology tends to be
empiricist. That is, there's no point in capitalists and workers
trying to debate the issue with each other, although I think it is
increasingly important that each class itself take the issue more
seriously.

The point is not for capitalists and workers to get hung up trying to
debate the issue between themselves, but whether we are now witnessing
the demise of democracy. Socialists have for so long made an invidious
distinction between political democracy (Marx's parliamentary
cretanism) and socio-economic democracy that sometimes they
underestimate the value of political democracy. The bourgeois state
created a poltical commonwealth that at best protected the rights and
personal security of its citizens and created a safe arena for their
interaction and the manifestation of private interests. Increasingly
socialists appreciate the value of these benefits, even if they
recognize the bourgeois political commonwealth as very w, as
insufficient, and as doomed to failure.

Globalization, U.S. world hegemony, IMF conditionalities,
privatization, trade liberalization, the U.S. attack on the U.N.,
etc. (in short, capitalism), is tending to dissolve bourgeois
political commonwealths. Marxists in principle don't simply
reject the bourgeois political commonwealth out of hand, but aim to
aim to transacend it with something that is better - that not only
protects the individual, but at the same time encourages a social
development of the individual (which capitalism does not even claim to
do).

Rather than get hung up over fascism, we need to decide whether the
conditions necessary for a decent life the world over are today under
serious threat and if so, devise strategies to preserve and develop
these conditions in the future. Whether we use the term fascism
to refer to the present trend should not be the center of debate.